That we are not much sicker and much madder than we are is due exclusively to that most blessed and blessing of all natural graces, sleep.

Industrialization is the systemic exploitation of wasting assets. In all too many cases, the thing we call progress is merely an acceleration in the rate of that exploitation.

Every civilization is, among other things, an arrangement for domesticating the passions and setting them to do useful work.

The impulse to cruelty is, in many people, almost as violent as the impulse to sexual love - almost as violent and much more mischievous.

No man ever dared to manifest his boredom so insolently as does a Siamese tomcat when he yawns in the face of his amorously importunate wife.

Henri IV's feet and armpits enjoyed an international reputation.

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.